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Formerly known as "Two-Finger Ramblings of a Forensic Acuitant turned Community Synthesizer"

Sunday, February 07, 2010

Clerk deserts GG in Time of Need (First ?annual? Prorogation)

Executive Summary - (excerpt M.Valpy's Dec 5/08, blow-by-blow G & M article)"Halfway through the meeting, Mr. Harper and Mr. Lynch, Ottawa's top civil servant, were left alone in the room while the Governor-General and Ms. Cook went to confer with special adviser Peter Hogg, former Osgoode Hall law dean and author of the definitive scholarly work on constitutional law in Canada."

In her historic meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Governor-General Michaëlle Jean discussed Canada's economic situation, the viability of an alternative coalition government and the mood of Parliament.

Only four people were present at the Thursday morning gathering in Rideau Hall: Ms. Jean, Mr. Harper, Clerk of the Privy Council Kevin Lynch, and the Governor-General's secretary, Sheila-Marie Cook.

Ms. Jean made clear to the Prime Minister that she was not a rubber stamp for his request to shut down Parliament until late January; that it was within her constitutional discretionary power to turn him down.

Constitutional expert Peter Russell, who has met the Governor-General several times, said Friday she has a forceful personality and would not have been intimidated by the Prime Minister. “There is no doubt at all about that,” he said.Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Governor-General Michaelle Jean at the opening of the 12th Francophonie Summit in Quebec City on Oct. 17. PICT del'd

The meeting took place in Ms. Jean's oak-panelled study with the Royal Arms carved above the fireplace. It is the same room, built at the turn of the last century to replace a former greenhouse, where Governor-General Lord Byng met Prime Minister Mackenzie King in 1926 to deny him dissolution of Parliament and authority to call an election, which King wanted to avoid a motion of censure.

Halfway through the meeting, Mr. Harper and Mr. Lynch,Ottawa's top civil servant,were left alone in the room while the Governor-General and Ms. Cook went to confer with special adviser Peter Hogg, former Osgoode Hall law dean and author of the definitive scholarly work on constitutional law in Canada.

When Ms. Jean returned, there was more discussion, and then she granted the Prime Minister's request to prorogue, or suspend, Parliament, thus allowing him to escape Monday's scheduled vote of no-confidence that almost certainly would have torpedoed his minority Conservative government.

If Ms. Jean had refused the request, Mr. Harper, according to convention – the non-legal rules of the Constitution – would have had to resign.

By tradition, conversations are not disclosed between prime ministers and governors-general, who represent the Queen as head of state.

But what experts decode from the length of the meeting, about 21/2 hours, along with other subterranean information seeping out of the Governor-General's residence, is that Ms. Jean took full advantage of her constitutional right to be consulted, to advise and to warn the Prime Minister Ed note added Feb 7 '10 (those three words are an explanation of the Monarch's role in the UK -as described by QE2. Regardless, and a 'mystery' to the constitutional and "in Council community", according to BNA/Constitution 1867 (s12 vs s13) the GG has more power vis a vis Her/His (Executive)Privy Council and with the (Legislative Power's) Prime Minister.

It is known that she attached no conditions to the prorogation order. The document did not stipulate when Parliament will resume. That date was on a separate document.Constitutional scholars interviewed Friday indicated that it would have been beyond the scope of the Governor-General's reserve powers – the powers she can exercise without the approval of another branch of the government – to enforce any qualifications to a prorogation order.

Prof. Russell said Ms. Jean most likely would have wanted to know what happened in Parliament the past week that had changed the mood from co-operation to sudden virulent confrontation between the government and opposition parties. (Toronto Liberal MP Bob Rae told a symposium at the University of Toronto's law school Friday that the mood did a U-turn in days from coziness to hostility.)

Prof. Russell surmised that Ms. Jean discussed with Mr. Harper how he intended to work with the opposition parties as a minority government leader. Apparently, the state of the proposed Liberal-New Democratic Party coalition was raised. And she did discuss the worsening economic situation.

Prof. Russell told the law school symposium: “She has to have ministers who can govern with the confidence of Parliament. It [prorogation] was a very tough judgment call and, God bless her, she has the best interests of Parliament and the country at heart.”

I guessed at your email and if I'm wrong I hope the letters dept will find you for me.

Once a yr I still wear my G&M "Give us back our Dominion day" T-shirt, but I usedwhite-out to modify it to say "Give us our Dominion, 'ay"

+ I hope you are NOT a fan of Wm L. M. King .... or you'll hate the thrust and content of this letter.

Please let Mrs Valpy read this too (both NO's, we spoke by phone once during the 1992 campaign)

Regardless, I've just read today's "GG made Harper work for prorogue" and the bit about "Halfway through the meeting, Mr. Harper and Mr. Lynch, Ottawa's top civil servant, were left alone in the room while the Governor-General and Ms. Cook went to confer with special adviser Peter Hogg, former Osgoode Hall law dean and author of the definitive scholarly work on constitutional law in Canada."

NB-- the Clerk of the Privy Council is part of the Executive s.11 -- Mr Lynch is the one who should be advising the GG (not some non-sworn, non-Privy Councillor, ?fee-based? government lawyer/consultant)-- but he's the PM's man .

At least he's the PM's man since Order in Council PC 1940-1121 merged the Clerk into the PMO effectively usurping the Privy Council robbing the GG of independent advice (revenge for King-Byng) and then in 1950, in his coup de grace he convinced the Queen-in-council to permit "a Canadian" to henceforth be the GG (ie the PM's recommended toady)

THE GG already accepted poor advice from Harper in Sept when she granted Mr Harper an election ... if a coaltion was to be entertained it was then -- Harper said he couldn't govern anymore(although he'd not been defeated in the House, and since his own legislation said the term was fixed, the GG should have offered the opportunity to Dion THEN -- thus avoiding the election (delaying no doubt), putting Mr Harper in his place and elevating HER office to long-lost heights in public & constitutional circles.

Who am I to disagree with Prof Hogg but ... I have on many matters since he rose to attention in the Charlottetown Plebiscite.

I think he's drunk the "Prime Minister is King" kool-aid and holds a position on the Office of GG that is contrary to Parliamentary History, the Law but fully in agreement with post 1940 "practice" and "convention" and "observable truth" in Canadian Executive affairs.

He's written & taught this position so long that he believes it irrespective of what the BNA1867 says.

A classic example of someone who transforms themselves from being AN authority on a topic to THE authority - when that individual is wrong ..... there's hell to pay before the 'new idea' emerges .... even if it's blantantly true.

All I want is to follow the as-written BNA/Constitution - no more no less. Otherwise why have one and why keep fooling ourselves

rce--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------this is a cc of a follow up to a Letter to Editor I sent this am to the Calgary Herald - at Paula Arab's request.

It's an amalgamation of three ideas revolving around the Minority/Coalition/Prorogue/GovGen-ship- I'm looking for a "Media Champion" on these ideas

There may be some unknown facts in this 3-part omnibus that could make good "Stephen Colbert/Harper" deadpan parody

Part1 I sent this to The Clerk of the Privy Council suggesting that the GG had too few advisors and that it might be an idea to summon the whole Privy Council to discuss events and offer Her advice.

Part 2 Notwithstanding the commonly held view that "... Madame Jean. No matter what she chooses, people will be unhappy.", there is at least one other option (beyond new elections & a minority Lib/Ndp coaliton) open to the GG that sadly, no one seems to be aware of - the haughtily-named, 'Elegant Solution' which I include for your examination.

Part 3 After we solve the immediate problem, we must indeed "reform the office of the representative of the dysfunctional House of Windsor (formerly Saxe-Coburg Gotha)" and I include an idea on that to conclude.

An Elegant SolutionIntroductionCanada needs a solution that will:a) restore the as-written, BNA1867, Executive Order of Government (as described ss9-16),b) end the current partisan/personal game-playing,c) punish the self-serving, elected scoundrelsandd) reward everyone else.Dear Reader, I submit that with 3 of these you already agree -but the 4th, the Privy Council aspect, has you scratching your head.Not to worry -nobody has read and absorbed the Constitution, because Canadian civics can never be successfully taught in schools since the de facto does not match the de jure -and that's the rub ... if we have a BNA/Constitution Act, shouldn't we follow it?

I believe we should follow the Consitution and therefore have placed of restoration of the original Executive as the #1 objective.

Application to Crisis at hand:-Prorogued or not, the current Minority/Coalition crisis will end up on the Governor General's desk.-Ms Jean must Stand Up to the self-serving individuals proffering advice to Her (particularly the elected ones)NB Who else, beyond the elected players, is advising Her? -shouldn't we know their backgrounds and biases?

- or - in my opinion, She must Stand Down - acknowledging that She is unequal to the challenges of the full, as-written responsibilities of the Highest Office in the land.-Ms Jean must re-read sections 9-16 & the 1947 Letters Patent , gird up Her courage and tell Mr Harper to:1) form an All-the-Talents Cabinet with members called from all the parties represented in the Lower House (~25% Liberals; ~15% Ndp; ~10% Bloc with Conservatives for the remaining 50%)2) and to stipulate that this form of ministry will govern for the term set out in Mr Harper's Fixed Elections Date legislation, irrespective of who holds the office of Prime Minister3) and further to stipulate that the Office of Clerk of the Privy Council will be returned to the control of the Governor General (simply by rescinding Order in Council P.C. 1040-1121).

I respectfully ask the Canadian people to endorse this proposed solution.

Truly,rcePS In addition, we need to Elect the next Governor General (process also described on above blog) & Below in this letterCaveat -Failing to take this action (or something very similar) at the Governor General level will mean that one of the Leaders will form a "some-of-the-Talents" cabinet (for their own benefit).That self-serving effort will likely fail sooner than later, forcing an election-of-desperation and this opportunity to focus the attention of the Canadian voter on recovering their Privy Council from the usurpers of the Lower House will be lost.

May we hope that the silver lining of this Minority vs Coalition debacle will that public attention can be focussed on the method of selecting the next person to be recommended to the Queen as holder of Canada's greatest office, our TRUE Executive Head & National Leader - the Governor General.

If the GovGen was atop the Canadian power totem, all this wrangling in the lowest order of gov't would be minor details in the running of the country - barely needing the attention of the press and/or our Constitutionally empowered Executive.

The partisan 'leadership' of the biggest bunch of charlatans in the elected assembly WAS NEVER intended to run Canada.My preference is for that person to be found by a popular election held simultaneous with every-other General Election, with the term of Office to start 365 days after the House returns (Since any Citizen could run, a single-transferable ballot system -asking voters for their 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th etc choices all at once - would be the only way to get even a 50% result).

IMHO only by electing the GG can we hope to have an Officeholder with the mandate to return our bastardized-by MacKenzie-King/too-much-PMO/PCO-power government system to the supremely-suitable and wonderfully-crafted, as-written format described in 1867. Perhaps you'd like to read the Plain Language Version of it

Stop the "Race to the Bottom" (non-stop reportage of monetary/ fiscal/ economic 'bad news') lest the 'shorts' take the stock/bond market + the value of just about all of OUR assets to Zero.--- Tell everyone to 'Buy what they need today' at today's price and to 'Sell what they must sell today' on the same terms.